The interior trim components of automotive vehicles are sometimes fitted with pull handles to assist an occupant in ingressing and egressing the vehicle. Such handles are typically located on an interior trim component near the door opening, such as on one or morel of the vertical pillars or the overhead trim pieces that span the pillars.
The typical approach to manufacturing such trim pieces has been to mold the handles separately from the trim component and then to join them together in a subsequent assembly operation. Such a multi-step molding and assembly approach contributes to the cost and complexity of making such trim components.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,582 issued Mar. 7, 1995 to Shigeno et al. discloses a hollow bent portion such as an assist grip being formed by first injecting resin material into a mold then injecting a fluid, such as a gas, into the resin material to form a cavity within the part. U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,105 issued Nov. 16, 1993 to Komiyama et al. discloses a similar process. According to each of these methods, after curing, the assist grip must be poslt-applied to a support structure such as a trim panel. Therefore, attachment portions of the assist grip must be formed to include structures such as bosses or interlocking mechanical members configured to support fasteners or to otherwise accommodate attachment of the assist grip to a support structure.
It is also known to integrally form the soft outer skin of a door handle on an integral armrest portion of an interior door panel. U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,687 issued Aug. 6, 1991 to Kargarzadeh et al. and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses such a process and product. According to Kargarzadeh, a soft handle skin is integrally formed with a soft door panel armrest skin by using a special tubular mold tool and a shell tool. The tubular tool is supported in an elongated opening in a concave trench portion of the shell tool. An interior surface of the tubular tool is shaped to complement the exterior surface contours of the handle. The concave trench portion of the mold surface of the shell tool is shaped to complement the exterior surface contours of the armrest portion of the door panel skin. The surfaces are heated and powdered thermoplastic material is cast against the shell tool and into the interior of the tubular tool. The material fuses against these surfaces to form a skin or shell in the shape of a door panel having an armrest and integral door handle. The tubular mold tool is then disassembled and removed leaving a hollow channel, open at each of two opposite ends, that extends through the newly formed handle skin. The open ends in the handle skin are necessary to allow a separate structural member to be inserted through the hollow channel and attached at its ends to the surrounding trim panel structure. A flexible foam is then injected through the handle channel which encapsulates the structural member and supports the desired skin shape upon curing.
What is needed is an interior trim panel having an integrally formed hollow handle that is stronger and better able to support the weight of an ingressing or egressing passenger. What is also needed is a method of integrally forming a hollow handle with an interior trim panel that requires fewer steps.